If ever there were a time to analyze one's life, January is it. I LOVE January for that. It's burgeoning with promise. It's full of white space and tidy boxes and efficient check marks. I dream up new organization systems and get excited to implement them. I make lists and sketch ideas and add stuff gleefully to the Goodwill pile. I read, and write, and write about what I read, and I can sit happily for an embarrassingly long time with a mug of tea making neat notes in my new planner ("walk with G", "write for 30 minutes", "talk with MM").

And all this is GOOD. It is. I'm all for resolution-making, goal-setting, and habit-tracking. But I've realized that for me it's all fruitless if it doesn't start with God. I want to start by seeking His will, not just my desires...by chasing His purposes and not just my own satisfaction. I want — I need — to immerse myself in Him so I can recognize the difference between His leading and my striving. I want to look back on this January, this YEAR, and say, "That was the year I really GOT it." And so far, He's shown me glimpses of the life ahead. A life not riddled with vanity or insecurity or fear, but flowing with the calm confidence that comes from knowing I'm living the life He is prompting me to lead. A life connected to my fellow human beings, some who look like me and think like me, and many who don't. A life of stepping — or jumping — outside comfort zones. A life of letting my light shine before others, that they may see my good deeds and glorify My Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16).

I already know that none of this is truly within my capability. But it's all within HIS. So I'm going to let Him do the heavy lifting this year.

Will you join me? Start by spending time in the Bible and in prayer, and write down the glimpses He gives you of the year ahead. I'd love to hear where He's leading you!

One thing I've learned about God through the years is that He is lovingly persistent. He never gives up on anyone, and He never "leaves well enough alone", which means He is also continually pressing us into situations where we can grow. Often these situations are ones which call us out of ourselves, which challenge us to serve others, to be His hands and feet, to love deeply and boldly and sacrificially. Today I've invited Jen Diebling to share how God has been growing her in this way. You can read more of Jen's powerful story at her website, mamagiraffe.weebly.com.

I am a two-story house. When I initially heard about Sara’s divinely explained concept of the two-story house, I immediately thought: that’s me. I know exactly what she is describing. With further rumination I thought, well…that’s me now. Seven months ago, not so much. For the majority of my life I would never have claimed to be a two-story house. A ranch maybe. Or a trailer. Pretty one-dimensional with a very linear progression in my relationship with God. There were certainly amazing moments along the way, but I honestly felt my journey hadn’t really begun because something earth-shattering hadn’t happened to me.

Several months ago when I did experience something that made the world crumble around me and I thought I might meet Jesus much sooner than had ever been my plan, I secretly thought: Finally! God is giving me the chance to exercise my faith muscles, demonstrate my strength to others, and to fully submit to His grace and overwhelming power.

That was the easy part.

What I didn’t understand was that those moments where I was completely reliant on God, with hands lifted to Him in release and clasped in prayer because that’s all I could do, was not the part of my story that makes me a two-story house. It’s what I do, and who I am from this point on. I thought I had this faith thing down. Like most everything else in my life, I thought I could make a big old check mark in the box labeled: “Survive something intense and heartbreaking with your faith intact.” You could probably hear me shouting out “CHECK!” like I had it all under control. In reality, this process of moving on from a painful, teaching time—building my second story, so to speak—has exposed some really ugly things in my foundation. There’s competitiveness, pride, and jealousy in there, and I’ve come to realize this: the work God has done and is doing on my body to heal it, simply pales in comparison to the work He is doing in my heart. While I thought I had finally had that formational experience that many people talk about in their lives, the one that brings them closer to God and changes them forever, I realized to my dismay, that while I may have had such an experience, I am the same me. The me who used to compare my good deeds to those of others…still compares. The me who used to analyze every little thing I said to be sure I sounded humble enough… still analyzes. I may have grown in these areas, but boy, do I have a ways to go. In this season of my life, the Lord is calling me out of myself.

I believe Sara is absolutely right, God never gives up on us. He is lovingly persistent, and astoundingly faithful. So as I build my new foundation, God is teaching me to stand firm on something new. I might need to pack up my first story and move it to a completely new plot of land. Where before when faced with a challenge, I would have made a list, discussed with a million people, prayed a little bit, and charged ahead, I have heard the Lord telling me: “Be still.” Many of us know and have memorized Psalm 46:10, where we are told to “Be still and know that I am God.” A fellow believer, as she lay in her own hospital bed just recently, reminded me of Exodus 14:14: “The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.” How often the Lord assures us that it is not our job to plan the future and make it a reality. We need only to place our confidence in his faithfulness. Just as God worked a miracle on my body, He will orchestrate the same in my heart. The wisdom I need has been right there in scripture all along. The new foundation I seek is one built on the word of God.

Due to the nature of the health issues I have experienced over the last few months, I have had to practice a new kind of stillness. It has been, to the say the least, one of my greatest challenges. I know it sounds silly, but I know you understand the craziness of the culture we live in, rushing to and fro, multi-tasking constantly, and planning for the next five seconds and the next five years all the same instant, all the while taking pictures every five minutes to be sure we have something to show for ourselves on Instagram (or is that just me?). I feel like if I want to be the hands and feet of Christ I should be doing the great things the people around me are doing in the name of Jesus. But for now, God is working on my heart, washing it white as snow, and instructing me to be still. For many weeks just a few months ago, I could only lie still in a hospital bed and hold my newborn baby. As I have progressively been able to return to my “normal” level of activity, I find myself getting caught up in the need for the truly abnormal level of activity I may have been accustomed to before—so easily wrapped up again in doing things they way they are “supposed to be” done, when I have so recently learned that God doesn’t work within the parameters of “supposed to.”

Recently, I returned to a moment of stillness: relishing a moment of prayer in my daughter’s nursery with her, I was able to be fully present with the Heavenly Father. Though I have never heard the Lord speak words before, I felt a wave of overwhelming paternal grace telling me to Be still. And not just be still, but stay still. It was this amazing moment I feel I shared with the Holy Spirit, “who lives within [me] so [I] don’t need anyone else to teach [me] what is true” (1 John 2:27). The answers I need about how to build my foundation, and the reaffirmation of how to change my heart, are not found where I may have looked before, but in the living word.

I love the way Ben Rector sings, “This isn’t easy, it isn’t clear. And you don’t need Jesus, until you’re here.” I thought it was while God was healing my body that I would need Jesus the most, but I know now that I will need his grace far more while the Lord works on my heart. God continues to teach me what it means to be His hands and feet in this season of my life: to stop acting like Martha in Luke 10:38, cleaning, preparing, fussing, and then haughtily comparing myself to those who are truly reveling in Jesus’ glory and reaping the benefits. He is teaching me to embody Mary, who allows herself to be still with the Lord. She is content to simply be WITH the Lord, and so must I be.

One thing I've learned about God through the years is that He is lovingly persistent. He never gives up on anyone, and He never "leaves well enough alone", which means He is also continually pressing us into situations where we can grow. Often these situations are ones which call us out of ourselves, which challenge us to serve others, to be His hands and feet, to love deeply and boldly and sacrificially. Today I've invited Ashley McNary to share how God has been growing her in this way.

I have always loved the idea of being able to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I love the picture that we get to actually be the dispenser of God’s love and grace and acceptance. I have been inspired by this idea and empowered by it. And for almost everything that God has asked me to do, being His hands and feet has been an absolute joy.

For awhile we would sing a song at our church that would make my heart beat and my soul begin to stir and I would sing out: I wanna be Your hands & feet.I wanna be Your voice every time I speak.I wanna run to the ones in need, in the name of Jesus.I wanna give my life away, all for Your kingdom’s sake.Shine a light in the darkest place, in the name of Jesus.In the name of Jesus

Yes. I wanted to do that.

Up until about a year ago, about everything that God had asked of me, or prompted in me, I have genuinely been pretty thrilled about. Regardless of whether I felt a little insecure, or unsure, or unqualified, there was a sense that, in doing what He was asking, life and adventure and mountaintop experiences were waiting for me.

And they were. His callings have been wildly fulfilling.

And then last February happened. And God showed us another way to be His hands and feet. It was in an uncomfortable way. In a way that would require true sacrifice. In a way that I honestly didn’t want to do. We were prompted to become a foster family.

I wish, oh how I wish, that I could write something beautiful about this journey for us and that we are thrilled to be stepping into this amazing calling. I have friends who have entered this process and experience with such grace and finesse and beauty. Their heart and passion is astounding and their conviction strong. That is not my journey. I feel like I am clunky and awkward and walking around in a revolving door, never actually leaving the circle I am walking in.

And I am, quite honestly, so scared of being Jesus’ hands and feet in this way. In my selfishness, I want to go back and sing the song like this:I kind of wanna be Your hands and feet, in ways that I like.I kind of wanna be Your voice every time I speak, as long as what I am saying will be received well.I wanna run from the ones in need, in the name of boundaries and safety.I wanna give my life away, as long as it doesn’t cost me much.Shine a light in a semi-dark place, in the name of comfort.And In the name of Jesus

That – THAT – is the real ugliness of my heart. Every step that we take closer to this prompting to foster, I think of a thousand reasons why we shouldn’t. I want to bail. I do not want to be Jesus’ hands and feet in this way. I don’t want to add chaos or uncertainty or loss of control to my life.

I had made a list of cons for fostering:- tricky season of life with 3 little ones of my own- I have been officially done with diapers for almost 2 years, do I really want to go back?- I don’t want more sleepless nights- How would babysitting work?- We are finally getting into a rhythm, do I want to mess that up?- How would we still travel?- I don’t want to know about all the pain in the world- I can finally read a book in peace (yes, this was a real source of contention)

I felt that I had a pretty good list. That I was justified in all of my reasons.

But then I read what Jesus told his followers in John 15:12-14:My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

In the face of Jesus’ words, my “cons list” is nullified. I simply cannot choose my book-reading over Jesus’ command.

See, there are children in MY TOWN who are neglected and abused and feel unwanted – and I have the opportunity to love them and tell them of a God who loves them. There are women in MY TOWN who are scared and don’t know how to love their own kids – and I have the opportunity to let them know that redemption is possible and God’s love reaches far. There is a darkness that is prevailing – and I have the opportunity to shine a light.

So, today we will have our final meeting to become officially licensed foster parents. We will be extending the reach of Jesus’ hands and literally walking in places that we have never walked before. And I am still more scared than I am excited. But like every other calling that God has given – I am feeling wildly fulfilled.

One thing I've learned about God through the years is that He is lovingly persistent. He never gives up on anyone, andHe never "leaves well enough alone", which means He is also continually pressing us into situations where we can grow.Often these situations are ones which call us out of ourselves, which challenge us to serve others, to be His hands and feet,to love deeply and boldly and sacrificially. Today I've invited Emily Kaellner to share how God has been growing her in this way.

I cannot help but think of Mumford & Sons and one of their songs called "White Blank Page". To me, writing publicly is intimidating. It might not be to our current culture full of bloggers and writers and witty individuals who simply post their cool comical tweets. But, as for me, I am not a writer. Not even close. I did attempt a blog once. When I was 21. That was ten years ago and I called it, “Em & M’s… dancing through life one M&M at a time.” BAHAHA! So, work with me here and try and follow what I am about to describe to you.

I am 31 years old. I have an incredible husband and two beautiful daughters. We own a house in the lovely suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin. We live in an incredibly safe and generous neighborhood and both have our gym, the grocery store and our work no more than a 5 minute drive away. Pretty little picture, right? And it is. Everything is abundant. But it is never what I thought my life would look like.

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to change the world. I have a Savior in Christ Jesus and since I am a Christ-follower, He calls me to GO and make disciples to the ENDS of the earth. I take that command seriously. I want to help change the world! I surely thought that command meant that I was to move to a country in Africa or South America and help be His A-game by CHANGING LIVES there. You see, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a nice, wealthy, attractive area and yet I took every opportunity I could to help anywhere but there. I went on weeklong mission trips with my youth group every summer and even led one in college to other parts of the country, to Mexico, to Canada, to OTHER places but my suburban life.

And as time went on as a young adult, during my junior year at Marquette in Milwaukee, I wanted to drop out and become a missionary SOMEWHERE ELSE. There are hungry, suffering people around the world and I needed to go help them! ENTER ROAD BLOCK: my sweet, protective parents would not let me. They refused. Shocking! See, at the time they were paying for my bills, so I really knew their say in my idea was the one that was going to stick. I was devastated. They wanted the best for me and cared about my future so they gave me an alternative: to study abroad for a semester. Unlike the rest of my college friends, I was not enthusiastic. I wanted to go do missions and help the world. But I was determined to make the best of this undesirable situation. SO, I checked out the study abroad programs and I could not believe my eyes. They had just started a study abroad and service-learning program in Cape Town, South Africa. This was a pilot program where a small group of students would work and study with the locals in order to learn about community development and what was happening within the country. I almost peed my pants. Loophole city! My parents were the aggravated ones now. I knew they would stick to their word so here I was elated and jumping for joy.

So, in 2007, I lived in South Africa. It was one of the best times of my life. I came back from living in Cape Town a different, transformed girl. I thought this was just the beginning of my world-traveler life. Fist pump!

When I graduated, I decided to be a missionary for a year in Brazil. Enter road block: our visas were unable to get approved for longer than a few months so we would have to travel back and forth from the States to Brazil and it would be too expensive. Also, the leadership there was changing and so with a number of complications, the mission was canceled. We were redirected to Brisbane, Australia. We were to pray about it to see if it was where we were to go.

What? A westernized country? How could they need my help? Nooo, how was I going to tell my people to support me when I am going to a country just as rich as the US? “God, You have it wrong!” I whined.

I had a couple days to pray about it. At the time, I was planning my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary party and raising support for this mission and working a job and housesitting a friend’s place with two dogs. I used to say “yes” too much. I used to spread myself too thin. Can you tell?!

So one morning I went to the Starbucks and prayed, sought God on this matter and really carved out some time to wrestle with whether or not I was going to go to australia. This couple that sat by me struck up a conversation with me, asking if I was reading a Bible opened in front of me. I explained my situation to them and said at the end, yes, I am reading the Bible. They were so excited about the possibility that I am traveling to tell others about the hope of Christ that they wrote me a check for $1,200 right on the spot. For real. No exaggeration. Strangers. Just gave me a lot of money. They don’t even know me. I did not even ask for it. I did not even tell them I needed to raise a ton of money for this thing to happen.

And at that moment, I did not need a greater sign than that. I was going to Australia.

Well, this trend goes on and on and on throughout my life – where I try to figure out where God wants me to “help” people. And I attempt to go or I do go… and again and again, He brings me back to the Midwest suburban life.

You see, one of my life verses has always been Acts 1:8: But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth. (AMP)

I always took this as saying that I can go ANYWHERE and should go everywhere for Christ. Well, even though Jesus tells us where you are to be a Witness for Him (everywhere), the text actually first speaks of their present location: Jerusalem. Many believe that for us reading this verse today, Jerusalem represents where you live now. Then it speaks of the local area such as the state or country you live in. THEN, it goes on to speak about going out to the rest of the world.

I mean, I share my life with my family and my friends but I never really thought that growing up in the ‘burbs I was supposed to end up evangelizing to the ‘burbs. So, again, I whine for a bit. Not that I am unwilling to do what God wants me to do, I just need to throw a bit of a tantrum first to get it out of my system. I am a planner so I need to simply readjust. I say, “God, I don’t want to talk about Louis Vuitton purses and if I have a nanny cam installed in our nursery!’ That is really what I thought my world was going to be like if I were to stay put. Then I got real with God, real with myself and “real”ized that I, me, myself, grew up here in the midst of this all. I am a part of it all. Just because I have been other places doesn’t mean I am above where I grew up. I still needed someone to tell me about eternity and Jesus and His hope for my life. Just because the glitz and glamour gets in the way and it’s not obvious from the cover of the wonderful American-dream, white-picket-fence life that we all live around here… we all still need something more. The need to hear that there is more to life might be even more crucial around here… on a soul level. Our souls are being quenched by all the distractions, all the “stuff” that can so easily entangle us and we are all dying like the fashions that were last season… but slower and with more Starbucks in our hands.Enter road block: my own relationship with God and realizing that He has been calling me back to my roots, back to spaces and places that are so desperate for Him but we don’t even know it. I knew it but I didn’t want to be the one to do it. All along it's like God has been saying, “Em, stay put. Don’t run away. Even though it’s hard, even though it might seem more impressive, more exciting to scurry off to a foreign land to do my work, I am missing in the lives around you now more than ever. Everyone is drowning in the lifestyles of the rich and famous or trying to live up to that standard. Since I have given you a taste of what it could be like and to be an ambassador that there is another way to live, stay here and show it to others.”

Oh geez.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me a comfy bed and hot water and heat and electricity and all the wonderful blessings we so easily take for granted. My friends will tell you, I like glamping, not camping. Or neither at all and grab a hotel. I love fashion and fancy coffee and convenience. But I think all these years of going far away was more of a self-defense, a way not to have to deal with any of problems and challenges that come with having a lot of material things yet impoverished spiritual lives. I also was afraid of being ordinary… afraid that if I lived in a normal place with regular things around me, that I would somehow not be used as mightily by God. All false beliefs. God can use us anywhere and sometimes the most familiar places are forgotten. so I have been trying to do that for a while now. And it is tough. Challenging is an understatement. It would be so easy for me to move where there is less and to have less but to be surrounded by more yet not choose to have more: that is the true test.

As Arulnathan John said in his 2011 article on vantagepoint.com, “Mother Teresa was well aware that what outwardly passed for satisfaction was often a mask to hide our innate dissatisfaction or discontent. During an interview with Time magazine in 1989, she said the rich ‘are never satisfied. They always need something more…I find that poverty hard to remove. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.’ ”

I am nowhere perfect at trying to be IN the world but not OF it around here. I sometimes do not even know what to leave out or separate and what to keep in. And I don’t always think that just because you have much, you are idolizing it. Many people have a great relationship with things. But what I do know is that God is alive here and moving and people are catching on. God has changed my desire and I am excited to go wherever He leads me, even if that is just around the corner or 5 minutes away. I continue to rely on His strength, His will and His plan for my life. Because, without it, I would be just one White Blank Page and that is boring. God has taken me places I would have never taken myself. It has been surprisingly well for my soul. God’s plan is exhilarating even if it IS in your backyard in the middle of Wisconsin.

One thing I've learned about God through the years is that He is lovingly persistent. He never gives up on anyone, and He never "leaves well enough alone", which means He is also continually pressing us into situations where we can grow.Often these situations are ones which call us out of ourselves, which challenge us to serve others, to be His hands and feet,to love deeply and boldly and sacrificially. Today I've invited Katie Artz to share how God has been growing her in this way.

My name is Katie Artz. Sara and I have been friends for a few years now, and her friendship and wisdom have blessed me beyond words. I confess I wasn’t sure what to write about when Sara asked me to contribute, and I felt nervous. After thinking and praying, I just decided to write about my present struggle and God’s work in it.

As Sara said in her intro, "God is lovingly present and never gives up on anyone, and He never leaves well enough alone."This has been very true of God in my own little life. You see, three years ago, God rocked our world by calling us to adopt. It was a call that terrified me to my core. We had already been blessed with two daughters at the time, and the entire idea of adopting sounded scary and uncontrollable. Not good for a control freak like myself. After a time of putting this call on the backburner of life and telling God I was too scared to do it, my husband and I decided to trust God and go. We began the adoption process from China. In the midst of that two-year process, God surprised us with another blessing, a third biological daughter. At the end of our adoption process, God surprised us yet again by clearly showing us that our fourth daughter, Hannah, was different than what we thought she was going to be. She was older and had more involved special needs than we were originally planning on. We were scared, but decided God wanted us to trust Him. Hannah has been home for 15 months now. God is not only healing her, but also healing each one of us.

Through Hannah’s adoption process, God gently had my world of general wealth and comfort surrounded by people who were mostly like me collide with Hannah’s world of poverty, abandonment, neglect, and pain. Not only Hannah, but the hundreds of other orphans that she was with. I saw them, looked in their eyes, read about what little was known of their stories, and came face to face with a kind of pain and hardship that I was not experiencing in my own life. It had become personal now, and it broke me in a good way.

Little did I know, God was only getting started in my ”breaking down and rebuilding process.” Almost a year after Hannah arrived home, my husband took a new job in Memphis, TN. Off to Memphis we moved, in September of 2014.

Memphis is not like any other place I have lived. Memphis can feel so broken with its high poverty, crime, educational inequality, and racial issues. However, I am learning that with this hurt comes an abundant beauty when different worlds collide, which can be a daily occurrence in Memphis if you want it to be. The rich and the poor are neighbors. It seems that the rich and the poor are worlds apart but they live only blocks apart all over this city.

Adoption, and now living in Memphis, has caused me to wrestle through many questions with God. One of the main questions being: as a Christ follower, how do I respond to all the hurt I see and have seen?

I do not have the answers to all of my questions, but God gave me a start when He led me to the following verses. I am still learning exactly what these verses mean for me in my day-to-day life.

Matthew 16:24-25Then Jesus said to His disciples: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

James 1:22Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

And He gave me this word: ENGAGE

God has been faithful to give me opportunities to engage in my daily, ordinary “stay-at-home-mom, teacher-to-4-girls, and wife-to-awesome-husband” life. For example, as we turn into our Memphis church parking lot, we pass through a homeless community living under a viaduct. On the corner sits Isaac. The first day we met Isaac he was sitting on the corner where our car was stopped at a light holding a sign that said, “hungry.” (Now, let’s get this straight, I am pathetic at starting interactions with people who are different from me. It is sad, but oh so true. But God says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. I am taking God up on this promise.)

I made eye contact with Isaac. He smiled. I started to cry. I realized we had no food or water to give him. We only had money. I briefly reviewed everything I had heard about giving homeless people money.

“Don’t give them money, they will just buy alcohol with it.”

I decided I didn’t care what he did with my money because my job was to engage. Nathan rolled the window down, we said our hellos, and gave him the money. His eyes welled up with tears and his smile could have lit a room. We drove away. Our girls begged us to go back and invite him to church. So we drove back around and invited him to church with us. He said, “No, thank you.” I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to join us at church. Could I imagine walking into a church off the streets seeing others with clean clothes on, showered, and fed? I know I would feel awkward or embarrassed. I totally get that.

I got to wondering: wouldn’t it be so amazing if church wasn’t the only place to experience Jesus? Is it, though? What if Jesus came to us? But He did! He did come to us. It began to hit me: Jesus came to us. He walked into our mess. He didn’t protect Himself from it. Slowly, I am beginning to connect the dots as God gently brings me outside my box, showing me that following Him means I take up my cross in my everyday life to be used by Him in all places, not just within my church.

Jesus came to us. To engage means that through Him, I go to people. Not just people like me. I cross racial, socioeconomic, and language barriers. I cross neighborhoods, even countries. I engage with them. I love them. I feed them. I give when they have a need I can meet with no strings attached. I share my house. I intentionally form relationship with them. I welcome them. I acknowledge them. I see them. I listen to them. I do not judge. I love because that is what my Savior does for me. I serve because that is what He modeled for me.

Every Sunday we have been going to visit Isaac. We bring him a hot lunch and lots of water and sweet tea (it is the South, for pete’s sake!) We are slowly, and a bit less awkwardly now, getting to know each other. We get excited to see one another! There is waving and smiling and laughing. He has such a joyful spirit.

Our girls wanted to get Isaac a Christmas gift, as we first met him right before Christmas. We decided to get him the warmest socks we could find. Grace and Sophia, my two oldest, ages 7 and 8, wrapped his gift and addressed it. This is what the tag said:

I almost cried when I saw the tag. To: Our Friend. I love that that is the name they gave Isaac. Our friend. Not the homeless man. Not the man without teeth. Our friend….because that is what Isaac is becoming. When two worlds collide, beauty awaits. God is teaching me many, many things through Hannah and through Isaac and through Memphis. One being that He is everywhere, and there is no limit to where His love will take me to be His hands and feet, and two that God’s kingdom and God’s family spans every nation, every race, every tongue, every tribe, and every socioeconomic status and that diversity is a secret gem in the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven and bears witness to the power and miraculousness of our God to bring us together, despite our differences, as one under Him.

Engage! Be intentional about it.

These are the lessons I am learning as God teaches me ever so gently and lovingly who He is and who I am in Him and how that plays out in my day-to-day life of following Him wherever He calls.